


take back what the kingdom stole

by hydrospanners



Series: renegade [31]
Category: Star Wars Legends: The Old Republic
Genre: Friendship, Gen, Post-Nathema Conspiracy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-13
Updated: 2018-08-13
Packaged: 2019-06-26 20:22:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,888
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15670611
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hydrospanners/pseuds/hydrospanners
Summary: Alliance Commander Nirea Velaran has always had a talent for burning bridges. When Theron comes to her after Nathema to pay for his sins, she finds herself wondering whether some bridges can't be repaired.





	take back what the kingdom stole

**Author's Note:**

> Title based on the song Years of War by Porter Robinson because I still use song lyrics as titles like it's 2006.

They met by the cliff outside the base. Rea brought the whiskey, Theron brought the guilt, and they settled into the grass in silence, kicking their heels against the sheer stone face like children. A hundred meter crevice yawned beneath them, but they weren’t looking down.

 

It was an incongruously fine day for such an ugly conversation, the blue-purple Odessen sky dusted with blushing pink clouds as the golden sun sank beneath the horizon. The air was warm and dry, a light breeze stirring up the sweet scent of blooming flora. A day fit for beginnings.

 

Nirea swirled the cheap whiskey around in its bottle and squinted at the sky, wondering if the Gravestone had been close enough to see from the ground. She could still taste adrenaline and anxiety on the air. She knew the people— _her_ people—had seen their deaths coming. She just wondered how far down the barrel they’d been able to see.

 

She wasn’t sure if it was better or worse, to have more details about what was about to kill you.

 

Rea passed the bottle back to Theron without drinking and dug her palms into the soft earth behind her, leaning back. The waning sunlight was warm against her cheeks. It felt like life.

 

"Are—" Theron paused, swallowing a thick gulp of sweet Spring air “—are we gonna talk about this?”

 

“We were,” Rea said. She let her eyes fall shut. “Then I realized you were imagining worse things than I could ever think of, and silence seemed like the better punishment.”

 

Theron snorted and threw back another drink. He didn’t so much as flinch this time; his tastebuds had probably gone numb three fingers ago. “And I thought Jedi didn’t approve of torture.”

 

“Only the physical kind. It’s too straightforward.” She laughed mirthlessly. “Jedi can’t resist a good mindfuck. It’s basically the whole training curriculum.”

 

“Sorry I missed it,” Theron said. And despite the tone, despite everything, Rea got the sense there was still a part of him that meant it.

 

“Wanna trade?”

 

She felt his eyes on her. Felt him consider. “I don’t think so.”

 

“Smart. The Order’s not for you.”

 

“Doesn’t seem like it’s really for you, either.” It was one of the first things they’d bonded over, their mutual resentment of the Jedi. It was the core of their connection, the foundation of this strange sort-of-friendship Rea is so fucking desperate to salvage.

 

“No,” she agreed. “But I can survive it.”

 

Even with her eyes closed, Rea knew Theron’s jaw had just locked. She felt the spike of anger and bitterness. She’d prodded at an old wound that still hadn’t quite healed.

 

“You’d have been a great Jedi, Theron. Hell, you’re already better at it than me. Always blaming yourself and repressing your feelings.”

 

“Is that what being a Jedi’s about?” His lips quirked into a wry, humorless little smile.

 

“You’d have been great,” she went on as if she hadn’t heard him. “But it would’ve eaten up everything you are.” She thought of Rhese when she’d found him in that clearing back on Tython, all anger and bitterness, wound so tight he was near snapping. Everything he was smothered under carefully calculated layers of what he thought he should be. “I watched it happen to my brother. Watched it almost happen to my Padawan.” She glanced Theron’s way, both eyes opened now, and smiled. “I’m glad I don’t have to watch it happen to you.”

 

He flinched like she’d just hit him again, throat bobbing as he turned his eyes to the abyss below. He took a long, fortifying drink before he said, “I don’t get you, Rea.”

 

“I get that a lot,” she laughed.

 

“I should, though,” Theron complained. “I’ve read every report that so much as mentioned you. Every holovid, every news story. I’ve chased rumors about you through bars across the galaxy.”

 

“I’m flattered, Theron, but I’m married.” She patted his hand consolingly, struggling to keep a straight face. “I mean, I would definitely consider it if I was single. But then, considering _who_ I married--How do you feel about threesomes?”

 

Theron rolled his eyes. “If I was coming on to you, you’d know it.” After a moment’s hesitation, he added, “And I’m not. Just to be… y’know. Clear.”

 

Rea heaved a dramatic sigh. “Okay, okay! You win, Shan. Since I seem to have misplaced my husband I guess we’ll just have to do this without him. But only the once, so you’d better make it good.”

 

“Hilarious,” he said drily.

 

“I’m sure Doc won’t mind. He wouldn’t be able to resist all this charisma, either.” She raised her hand to her forehead and collapsed dramatically against Theron’s side. “Your animal magnetism is too much…. Take me now, Theron! Take me!”

 

He shoved her off his shoulder none-too-gently, scowling as he looked skyward, as if searching for another fleet of hostile ships to arrive and grant him the sweet release of death. When none came, he settled for another hearty gulp of whiskey. He had to be halfway to knackered by now. “You’re insufferable,” he grumbled.

 

“I know.” She smiled a smile that felt damn near genuine and collapsed back against the grass, swinging her legs out over the crevasse.

 

“I don’t even feel bad about all this anymore.” Theron complained. “You deserve it.”

 

Rea only laughed. A real laugh, all the way up from her belly, and it felt so fucking good.

 

Theron looked at her from the corners of his bloodshot eyes, suspicious and too clever by half. “Fuck,” he swore, shaking his head. “You just mindfucked me, didn’t you?”

 

She smiled broadly, folding her hands over her stomach and staring up at the candy-colored sky.

 

“I don’t know if I’m impressed you could do it or embarrassed I fell for it.” He made a frustrated noise before collapsing back onto the grass beside her. “I hate you.”

 

“You mentioned.” Rea tried to ignore the pang in her chest from remembering. She hadn’t ever really believed it—no feelings Theron was willing to confess for an audience could be real—but she had never quite managed to keep the scared, lonely sixteen year old that still lived in her bones from wondering. She could never quite shake the ghost of her aunt, whispering in her ear. _Everyone will betray you if you give them the chance, Turhaya_.

 

Even without the Force to help him, Theron sensed the sharp edge of real emotion behind her words. He knew her better than he thought. “I am sorry,” he said, his voice turning low and serious. “For what it’s worth.”

 

“Nothing to be sorry for, Theron.” Rea grabbed for his hand, squeezing his calloused fingers in what she hoped was a reassuring gesture. “I never really believed you anyway.”

 

Silence stretched between them, thin and reedy, before Theron squeezed her fingers in answer. “You’re a good liar,” he said. “I almost fell for that.”

 

“And you thought you didn’t get me.”

 

“Rea.”

 

“Theron.”

 

“I—“ he sighed, dragging a hand through what was left of his hair. The gel kept it standing at odd angles when he was through. “I really am sorry. I still don’t know what I could’ve done differently, but I’m sure there’s something. I’m sure there was some way I could’ve done it without— Well, it’s not like I didn’t know about—I mean I know it happened to you before. People you trusted betraying you.”

 

“You really did read all the records, didn’t you?”

 

“Probably not all of them. Teeseven’s good at what he does. But I read enough.”

 

“I wouldn’t think very much of a spy who didn’t do a little research before handing me the keys to the galaxy,” she said. Stars knew she’d stalked him right back. There wasn’t much room to be prickly about things like privacy and trust when so much was hanging in the balance. Not that she’d ever needed those kind of stakes to invade people’s privacy before all this.

 

“You’ve got to be at least a little mad,” he said. “The things I said…”

 

“You didn’t say anything I haven’t already thought myself, Theron.”

 

“Is that supposed to make me feel _better_?”

 

“You did what you had to do to make it believable. To get the intel we needed to save our people. Maybe it wasn’t elegant, but it worked. You shouldn’t feel bad about it.” Rea patted his hand in what she hoped was a reassuring way. “And give me a little credit, okay? It’s not like I didn’t know you were up to something.”

 

“I did try to leave clues.”

 

“The best clue was knowing you too well to believe you would’ve kept all that to yourself. You always call my bullshit when you see it.”

 

Theron smiled at that, a smile that was almost entirely real. “Someone has to.”

 

Sometimes, he said things that sounded so much like Rhese it sucked the air from her lungs. Sometimes, things between them felt so much like they did with her brother it felt like her heart was going to go supernova in her chest and destroy them both.

 

But she was not going to let things with Theron get like they got with Rhese. Nirea Velaran did not make the same mistake twice.

 

“Listen, Theron…” She swallowed, and tried to imagine him as a battlecruiser or an army or something less terrifying to face. “I’m not mad, but it’s not like you made all those speeches up on the spot. That shit you said, those thoughts must have crossed your mind before.”

 

His smile fell. “I have thought about that shit before,” he agreed, his voice turning serious again. Rea did not like the serious voice. “I’ve been thinking of it ever since _you_ said it to _me,_ Rea. I’ve been trying to think of ways to convince you none of it’s true.”

 

“Well,” Rea said in her own serious voice, “you sure fucked that up.”

 

Theron looked stricken for almost a full second before he remembered just who it was he was talking to. And even though he was the drunk one, deep enough in his whiskey to let all those feelings he pretended not to have play right across his face, Rea found herself giggling.

 

Theron rolled his eyes at her, but it wasn’t long before a giggle bubbled out of him too. One giggle turned into two turned into three turned into gasping, hiccuping peals of belly-deep laughter as the two of them curled onto their sides, clinging to one another and holding their ribs as they tried desperately to breathe.

 

It had been so long since Rea felt she could really breathe.

 

When the laughter faded, she found all the hurt and the worry and anger of the last few weeks had faded with it. She slung an arm over Theron’s side and breathed deep of the sweet-smelling air and let herself relax. Just for a few minutes. Just for now.

 

“We’re gonna be okay,” she promised.

 

“Yeah,” he agreed, smiling the stupid smile of the drunk. “Okay.”

 

“But before we start making our friendship bracelets, there is something I wanted to ask you.”

 

“Shoot.”

 

Rea scooted closer, giving him the most serious look she could manage as she whispered, “What the fuck happened to your hair?”

 


End file.
